It's a surreal feeling when I managed to go to Goodwill and actually find some things of note and I managed to do that Thursday, two days before Record Store Day would be upon us. Usually the thrift stores are picked clean but since I didn't work Thursday, I figured I would pop in to see what The Salvation Army or The Marion Goodwill had. For that rare time, I found four records of varying degree, Gentle Giant The Missing Piece, UK's 1977 S/T album, Rod Stewart's A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues, that 1976 Private Stock of mid 60s music that Stewart filed suit to stop but the record was found easily in the cut out bins and I had a copy originally, and B B King's Back In The Alley, that 1973 best of that ABC Bluesway issued. I guess that was the find of the week since it was only a dollar. And then Friday, the pawnshop had Big Audio Dynamite first album for a dollar too. So I basically was thinking of tossing RSD to the side and just do something else. But in the end, caved in.
It really didn't make much sense to go scour the Thrift stores in Davenport since I was there a month ago and didn't find anything of note and basically talked myself out of the same quarter 45s that have been there time and time ago, and they still had Jimmy Webb Suspending Disbelief, the one that I donated back in November. Even for 95 cents and still in mint condition, nobody wanted it. Thought about taking it home but that would not be cost effective. And I suspect the Black Crowes Lions cd is still mine as well. Still left there empty handed as well as going to Stuff Etc and finding nothing. Moving on, I went to Ragged Records, basically to pick up the 45s that I put away the last time I was there. Ragged was very busy today, plenty of people in store picking up vinyl left and right and of course they had a wide selection of RSD exclusives, perhaps the best was the 2 LP Sly And The Family Stone Live At The Fillmore that I looked at, but once i put it down, somebody snatched it right up. I didn't see the need to spend 40 dollars on that, nor the 23.99 retail for a mono copy of The Doors Strange Days, nor the Spingsteen The River which I paid 3 times less the 40 dollars to have that once again. While some band was making lots of fusion noise on the makeshift stage, I spent time in the 45 section refusing to come out till they quit playing. Ben Crabb, the other sales person gave me a 2 dollar set rate for all 6 45s that I bought, rather than having Bob quoting a price out of the blue, which made better cents and sense to me. The Tower 45 of Harry Nilssons Sixteen Tons was the prize find. I also managed to reacquire Steppenwolf's Rock Me and a picture sleeve of Jim Reeves, I Know One B/W I'm Getting Better.
It's fairly easy to find Jim Reeves LPs around here and he usually gets slammed by collectors seeing his stuff at the thrift stores but I could use a better LP of Tall Tales and Short Tempers simply of the original version of It's Nothing To Me but I never seen a 45 picture sleeve of I Know One. And basically Ben was probably happy to see it go. Even though it was Record Store Day, Ragged Records slashed 20 percent off used records prices and I managed to find a Glass Moon and Clear Light's Sundazed reissued for under 20 dollars. So it was not a total ripping off consumers, Ragged made it a store wide sale. And if things sell, that's a win win for all.
Co Op in Moline, when I got there didn't have the crowds that Ragged enjoyed, like the last time I was there on RSD day not too many people were in there but they had the Waylon Jennings Live 55 LP which was a old Waylon Jennings radio show so that became my RSD buy. Searching deeper, I came across the late Ellie Greenwich Let It Be Written, Let It Be Sung album on Verve for a dollar. Since I wanted to catch the Quad Cities River Bandits game at 6 I didn't spend a whole lotta time in Co Op, just long enough to browse and buy and head back to Davenport. And basically didn't go to Books A Million and check out their vinyl selection, besides I spent my limit. And got to watch Quad Cities beat Kane County 2-1 in a pitchers duel. to which Colin Bray, Cougar outfield would be taunted by some drunk fans out in the picnic areas. Bray damn near killed himself making a spectacular catch in foul territory and then get upended on the short fence and into the stands. He stayed in the game but he was hurting. Quad Cities this season has been excellent with a 9-1 mark, they keep playing that way they'll make the playoffs. Kane County is the defending champions going 91-46 last season but most of the roster are now in double and triple A.
I tend to think this year's Record Store Day was better than expected. Not that I counted on finding anything much, but somehow I did think I'd return back to Ragged enough to put the records I want out of sight, or hope that collectors out there would overlook them. I still was not that impressed of the exclusive RSD stuff out there, the double sided Lemonheads/Gram Parsons is for hoarders only and although my OCD gets the best of me, I know when to put certain things away. But I also know that in this day and age, the vintage 45s I've been searching since the big finds of last year's excursion was a fluke upon itself. Will I ever find a Buddy Holly/Bob Dylan/Sam Cooke collection again I doubt it. And every trip since then, I bullshit myself that I will get that lucky again, only to throw up my arms and just plunder what Ragged Records has available, I really haven't bought myself up to bother Bob about those undiscovered 45s hiding up in his attic and due to my limited space at home, really don't see the need to. The beginning of this decade saw me finding plenty of 45s for very cheap at various Half Priced Bookstores across this country which may have gotten me this false sense of thinking I can still find 45s at any given time. But since the vinyl revival, Goodwill and Salvation Army hasn't been as fulfilling as it once was. But then again, I may have driving deeper into the harder to find 45s than most folk, even to the point of going after pop records of the 50s that my mom have grown up listening to. Carmen Cavarallo perhaps the oddball find and certainly not rock and roll but as long as the record is in decent shape and not chewed up, anything is possible and usually is bought and listened to.
Just like the Nutty Squirrels. (all pictures taken at Ragged Records, Davenport, except for the River pic) http://www.raggedrecords.org/
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